Conversion canard

Mazdayasnie Monasterie president Dame Dr Prof Meher Master Moos is incensed that the WAPIZ Page in the Free Press Journal dated August 7, 2009 has "lifted” without taking prior written permission a photograph from a color brochure of a delegation visit to Tajikstan in 2006 depicting a navjote ceremony being performed there with the caption "Proof of conversion activities of Framroze Mirza and Khushroo Madon in Tajikstan.” In a letter addressed to Parsiana she writes: "The deliberately misleading text above this photograph continues by stating that ‘they performed 45 such conversions there’… (and) gives the source of the photograph as ‘Meher Master Moos Publication.’”

The photograph was taken during her visit to Tajikstan for the republic’s celebration for the revival of Aryan civilization and culture, writes Master Moos. Mazdayasnie Monasterie and Zoroastrian College are concerned with educational work, regarding "the revival of the Zoroastrian daena in its original homeland among the Aryan people whose tokhum kyani is probably purer than that of the writers in India of this WAPIZ Page, and whose Tajik ancestors were amongst those who were the first followers of the faith expounded by … Zarathushtra in the court of the Kyanian king Vishtasp in Balkh, Bactria, presently the Central Asian lands known as Tajikstan, Afghanistan and Uzbekis-tan,” she mentions, referring to WAPIZ (World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zar-thoshtis) as: "Worst Apartheid Practitioners in Zoroastrianism.”

Ervads Framroze Mirza (left) and Khushroo Madon

Master Moos explains that in 2002 Emomali Rahmonov, the president of Tajikstan, went to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in Paris and had 2003 declared as the Year of Revival of Zoroastrian Civilization and Culture. A world conference was held in the capital city of Dushanbe on the occasion at which she was the only representative of the Parsi Zoroastrian community invited as speaker at the magnificent function.

Again, in 2006, Master Moos was invited by the Tajikstan government to bring a delegation of Zoroastrians to celebrate the Revival of Aryan Civilization and Culture. The delegation included Ervads Mirza and Madon who performed navjotes in Khujand of persons of this ancient tokham kyani stock on a purely honorary basis, she reveals. About half the population of Tajikstan is descended from this ancient Aryan Zoroastrian stock and the photograph printed in the WAPIZ Page is of persons whose "burjish jzhirum asphendi is of much higher level than that of the WAPIZ persons, publishers of this advertisement,” Master Moos contends. The two priests named by WAPIZ are "falsely accused of conversion of persons in Tajikstan. In fact no conversions were done of any persons” there, she maintains.

As part of the celebrations in 2006 the president of Tajikstan held a great parade at the city stadium in his home town of Kulab which over 1,00,000 persons attended. The opening scenes showed a 22 ft tall figure of Zarathushtra, the performance of a fire ceremony and the arrival of the Zarathushtrian daena amongst the present day people of that country, according to Master Moos.